jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
3.0
James Crumley is basically the Raymond Chandler of the American west. I mean that as both a compliment and a dig.
I like Chandler and appreciate his status as the OG of the contemporary American mystery novel but I wouldn’t say I’m one of his acolytes. His plots were often heavily convoluted and though I don’t like applying 2018 sensibilities to works published sixty-plus years before, the vast majority of his female characters and how they are treated by Marlowe is nothing shy of misogynistic. Nevertheless, the man had a gift for both dialogue and scenery. He created a Los Angeles I felt like I could walk through and had crisp, biting dialogue.
Crumley has these strengths and weaknesses as well. If Philip Marlowe was a Vietnam Vet from Montana and did a lot of cocaine, he would be CW Sughrue. There is even the sympathetic tendencies towards the lower middle class and the plight of the poor that Chandler expresses. Crumley is the closest thing to Chandler, for better or for worse.
In this one, it’s more for worse. The plot here is almost impossible to follow and while I enjoyed how it shook out in Dancing Bear, it just doesn’t make enough sense to justify the many emotional beats Crumley is trying to hit. This is supposed to be a missing persons story only it becomes a bigger tale about what drugs did to folks in Nam and what they’re doing here and how the government maybe is or isn’t involved. There’s just too many balls to juggle and, like Chandler, plotting has never been Crumley’s strong suit.
Also, I have a hard time thinking these beautiful women would fall head-over-heels for a washed junkie alcoholic but that’s just me.
Nevertheless, there are a lot of fun moments when the dialogue hums, when the locations are well-described, when the book is marching towards anything other than a shootout. Crumley’s characters often function best when they’re talking as if they’re seated on a barstool, killing time. There’s enough of that to not make this book a total disaster.
Also, Crumley is trying to transfer 70s sensibilities to a 90s atmosphere…and I don’t think he succeeds but he also doesn’t totally fail. He’s not exactly a fish-out-of-water; he grasps the reality of the changing times even if he’s not attuned to how they have changed.
Crumley is the Chandler of the Vietnam age. Use that on a book blurb if you want. I would tack on “for better and worse” at the end of it.
I like Chandler and appreciate his status as the OG of the contemporary American mystery novel but I wouldn’t say I’m one of his acolytes. His plots were often heavily convoluted and though I don’t like applying 2018 sensibilities to works published sixty-plus years before, the vast majority of his female characters and how they are treated by Marlowe is nothing shy of misogynistic. Nevertheless, the man had a gift for both dialogue and scenery. He created a Los Angeles I felt like I could walk through and had crisp, biting dialogue.
Crumley has these strengths and weaknesses as well. If Philip Marlowe was a Vietnam Vet from Montana and did a lot of cocaine, he would be CW Sughrue. There is even the sympathetic tendencies towards the lower middle class and the plight of the poor that Chandler expresses. Crumley is the closest thing to Chandler, for better or for worse.
In this one, it’s more for worse. The plot here is almost impossible to follow and while I enjoyed how it shook out in Dancing Bear, it just doesn’t make enough sense to justify the many emotional beats Crumley is trying to hit. This is supposed to be a missing persons story only it becomes a bigger tale about what drugs did to folks in Nam and what they’re doing here and how the government maybe is or isn’t involved. There’s just too many balls to juggle and, like Chandler, plotting has never been Crumley’s strong suit.
Also, I have a hard time thinking these beautiful women would fall head-over-heels for a washed junkie alcoholic but that’s just me.
Nevertheless, there are a lot of fun moments when the dialogue hums, when the locations are well-described, when the book is marching towards anything other than a shootout. Crumley’s characters often function best when they’re talking as if they’re seated on a barstool, killing time. There’s enough of that to not make this book a total disaster.
Also, Crumley is trying to transfer 70s sensibilities to a 90s atmosphere…and I don’t think he succeeds but he also doesn’t totally fail. He’s not exactly a fish-out-of-water; he grasps the reality of the changing times even if he’s not attuned to how they have changed.
Crumley is the Chandler of the Vietnam age. Use that on a book blurb if you want. I would tack on “for better and worse” at the end of it.
moreadsbooks's review
4.0
This book is a real riot. I'm exceptionally pleased that I gave Crumley another shot because this is miles better than The Long Kiss Goodbye. I love Sughrue, even though I think it's kind of silly that almost every woman in the book has sex with him, and his supporting cast is exquisite. My personal favorites include Jimmy & Wynona (poor Wynona). This is a wonderfully written cocaine-fueled, Vietnam-tinged romp involving ducks both Mexican tree & highly orgasmic domestic - although please riddle me this: That was almost the pinprick that deflated my four-star balloon, but I'm willing to look beyond that implausibility since after all it was so close to the end of the book & just enjoy & revel in what's here.
Spoiler
how in the heck do you bug (as in place an electronic listening device on) a baby?offmessage's review
3.0
All of the Gonzo, none of the class. Rambling, confusing, almost incomprehensible in places. Still some great passages and the kind of book that 20 year old me absolutely loved, but not a patch on either The Last Good Kiss or The Wrong Case, both of which stand as some of my favourites of all time.
gengelcox's review
2.0
Longtime subscribers to my commentary may remember my comments about the previous Crumley that I read, [b:The Muddy Fork and Other Tales], which was a collection of essays, interview, short stories, and unfinished novels. In my comments, I said that I would prefer the finished work. Lo and behold, here is one of those unfinished novels present and complete.
C.W. Sughrue from [b:The Last Good Kiss|523795|The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1)|James Crumley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333578437s/523795.jpg|1114323] is back, and hasn’t really changed. That’s part of the problem with PI and detective novels. In most novels, the lead character is expected to change– it’s one of those things they teach you in writing workshops. In fact, the Star Trek folks have managed to pin it down to two words: character arc. While it is horribly abused in Star Trek (it would probably make a great drinking game–first, identify the character who will “change” before the end of the episode, and then identify the “change.” I put change in quotes, because in Star Trek the arc is only good for one episode–by the time the next episode comes around, the character seems to have forgotten their life changing episode. [Okay, I’m not being fair, there are exceptions.]), it is a “formula” that much great fiction follows–except the mystery genre (oh, all right, I’m pontificating. I know SF and romance has a tradition of not following it either, but I’m working a different argument at the moment.). I admire the work of [a:Rex Stout|41112|Rex Stout|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1201136975p2/41112.jpg], but it isn’t character growth that brings me back. Nero and Archie are roughly the same in a book that Stout wrote in the 50s as they are in the 70s. Just as in some SF, where the readers return time and again to the same “world” (say, [a:Anne McCaffrey|26|Anne McCaffrey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1323715139p2/26.jpg]’s Pern), readers return to the characters of Holmes, Miss Marple, and Perry Mason. When mystery writers stray from this predilection, as [a:James Ellroy|2887|James Ellroy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1410226543p2/2887.jpg] did in [b:The Black Dahlia|21704|The Black Dahlia (L.A. Quartet, #1)|James Ellroy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387048173s/21704.jpg|434] and as Crumley did in [b:The Last Good Kiss|523795|The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1)|James Crumley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333578437s/523795.jpg|1114323], the result is often quite pleasurable and breathtaking.
So it is with trepidation that I approached a novel in which Sughrue takes the stage once again. My fear proved true: this isn’t a great novel like [b:The Last Good Kiss|523795|The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1)|James Crumley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333578437s/523795.jpg|1114323]. It’s not bad, but it ain’t got that same sort of swing. Sughrue continues his worldly self-destruction, and Crumley mixes in some wonderful Vietnam vet knowledge, but the centre does not hold. Crumley is still a wonderful writer, and while the plot may not be sliced bread, some of the descriptions are certainly tasty enough to be eaten and enjoyed.
C.W. Sughrue from [b:The Last Good Kiss|523795|The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1)|James Crumley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333578437s/523795.jpg|1114323] is back, and hasn’t really changed. That’s part of the problem with PI and detective novels. In most novels, the lead character is expected to change– it’s one of those things they teach you in writing workshops. In fact, the Star Trek folks have managed to pin it down to two words: character arc. While it is horribly abused in Star Trek (it would probably make a great drinking game–first, identify the character who will “change” before the end of the episode, and then identify the “change.” I put change in quotes, because in Star Trek the arc is only good for one episode–by the time the next episode comes around, the character seems to have forgotten their life changing episode. [Okay, I’m not being fair, there are exceptions.]), it is a “formula” that much great fiction follows–except the mystery genre (oh, all right, I’m pontificating. I know SF and romance has a tradition of not following it either, but I’m working a different argument at the moment.). I admire the work of [a:Rex Stout|41112|Rex Stout|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1201136975p2/41112.jpg], but it isn’t character growth that brings me back. Nero and Archie are roughly the same in a book that Stout wrote in the 50s as they are in the 70s. Just as in some SF, where the readers return time and again to the same “world” (say, [a:Anne McCaffrey|26|Anne McCaffrey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1323715139p2/26.jpg]’s Pern), readers return to the characters of Holmes, Miss Marple, and Perry Mason. When mystery writers stray from this predilection, as [a:James Ellroy|2887|James Ellroy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1410226543p2/2887.jpg] did in [b:The Black Dahlia|21704|The Black Dahlia (L.A. Quartet, #1)|James Ellroy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387048173s/21704.jpg|434] and as Crumley did in [b:The Last Good Kiss|523795|The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1)|James Crumley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333578437s/523795.jpg|1114323], the result is often quite pleasurable and breathtaking.
So it is with trepidation that I approached a novel in which Sughrue takes the stage once again. My fear proved true: this isn’t a great novel like [b:The Last Good Kiss|523795|The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1)|James Crumley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333578437s/523795.jpg|1114323]. It’s not bad, but it ain’t got that same sort of swing. Sughrue continues his worldly self-destruction, and Crumley mixes in some wonderful Vietnam vet knowledge, but the centre does not hold. Crumley is still a wonderful writer, and while the plot may not be sliced bread, some of the descriptions are certainly tasty enough to be eaten and enjoyed.
nigellicus's review
5.0
Awesome fast-moving crime thriller with a sprawling, formless plot but a riveting story full of bad-ass characters with lousy attitudes, hair-trigger tempers, serious substance dependencies and terrifying amounts of firepower. There's also love and heartbreak, tragedy and hollow triumphs, friendship, PTSD and some friendly waterfowl. Crumley's the king.
More...